Luke 19:28-40
28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30 “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”
32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”
34 They replied, “The Lord needs it.”
35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.
37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
Today is the last Sunday of Lent. Next week at this time we will be wearing our Easter bonnets, sun dresses, and pastel-colored shirts as we observe the resurrection of our Lord, as we celebrate Easter Sunday. Today is also the day we commonly refer to as “Palm Sunday,” the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a colt, and was inaugurated by the people as the king of the Jews.
I want to spend some time looking at the context of Palm Sunday to better understand what is going on. And as I do each year, I want us to really slow down and remember all that happened during Holy Week. Remember that in less than one week, the people when from crying out “Hosanna in the highest!” to “Crucify Him!” Remember that even Jesus’s closest friends and followers denied him, abandoned him, and one straight-up betrayed him.
As in years past, I’ll be drawing from Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan’s The Last Week, which gives a day-by-day account of Holy Week based on the Gospel of Mark. I don’t agree with these Bible scholars on all matters, but I do find their interpretation of the politics of the day to be helpful. So don’t take this as a full endorsement of the book, but it is helpful to get us to start thinking again about a story that we have likely heard every spring since we were infants. I also want to draw from Brian Zahnd’s Palm Sunday sermon from last year. Zahnd is the pastor at Word of Life Church in Missouri and he is strongly influenced by Anabaptist thinkers. Last year Zahnd preached each Sunday of Lent on a different day of Holy Week, much like Crossan and Borg dedicate one chapter to each day.
One of the things that I wish I would have thought of was the title from Zahnd’s Palm Sunday sermon. He called it, “There’s Always Some Dude on a Horse.” He shared some of his experiences, and I was able to connect well with what he was saying.
For instance, I’ve mentioned before that my family and I went to Philadelphia over spring break. We wanted to see the sites, the Liberty Bell, Constitution Hall, etc. But what I really wanted to do was climb the steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, better known as the Rocky Steps. There is a Rocky statue there at the base of the steps, and yes, every person who climbs the Rocky steps does the Rocky celebration.
I was shocked just how many statues were in that area, including a large statue of George Washington. We saw statues of Civil War soldiers, one of Joan of Arc (Noah’s wife?), and many more. What do you (who see the accompanying pictures) notice? They’re all on horses? As Zahnd notes, there’s always some dude on a horse.
Some of the famous war horses are just about as well-known as their owners. Traveller, the horse of Robert E. Lee was displayed at the Lee Chapel for years before it was finally buried at the chapel. General Sheridan’s horse, Winchester, is a permanent fixture at the Smithsonian.
These horses are symbols of power, might, and domination. Zahnd mentions one of the most famous dudes on a horse, Alexander the Great, who led Ancient Greece in the conquest of many nations. We even know Alexander’s horse’s name, Bucephalus, who lived from 355 to 326 BC. Is it weird that we know the birth and death dates of this horse? Is it even weirder that the Greeks had a coin minted with his image?
Zahnd also notes that about the time when Alexander the Great and Bucephalus were dominating the world, an unknown prophet was writing among the Hebrew people. This prophet, Zechariah, penned something that may be familiar to you. Zechariah 9:9 says, “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
We know that part because the Gospel writers appropriately connect that prophesy with our text for this morning. But I think that we often stop too soon. Zechariah 9:10 continues, “I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.”
Let’s look at a few things unique to our text for this morning, which is from Luke’s Gospel. Let me ask again, what is today? It is Palm Sunday, but if we read Luke account, there are no palms mentioned. The people spread their cloaks on the ground, but not palms. And of course, we know what the people yelled. They yelled, “Hosanna, hosanna in the highest!” But there are no shouts of hosanna in Luke’s account. The people yell, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
The fact that Luke doesn’t record the people waving palm branches or yelling “hosanna” doesn’t mean that they didn’t. What I get from this is that Luke, like the other Gospel writers, is writing his version of the event for a specific reason. Now look at the story right before the Triumphant Entry of Jesus in Luke’s account. Just before the events of Palm Sunday, Luke has Jesus telling a famous parable, the parable of the talents. The parable of the talents tells us of a king who entrusts his servants with many things and then goes away for a long time. Then, when the king returns, he requires an accounting of how his servants used what he put in their care. Luke begins this parable by saying, “he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.” (18:11b). The people expect Jesus to be king, and kick some Roman behind right now! It is the Passover. God has helped his people overcome great nations before, nations like Egypt. Surely, God can do it again!
The palms, the colt, the hosannas, the talents. All of these things remind us, just as they would have reminded Luke’s first readers, that this isn’t going to go exactly how you think it is going to go. So, are you with us?
I love the insight that Crossan and Borg add to this story. They suggest that there would have been two processions into the city of Jerusalem at about the same time. We know about Jesus’s entry, and we will return to that shortly. But as Jesus was entering from the east, Crossan and Borg suggest that Pontius Pilate was riding in from the west. Pilate is a central figure in our Easter stories, but he didn’t live in Jerusalem. He was the governor of a much larger region, and would have kept his main office in Caesarea Maritima, a modern port city with a lot of commerce and excitement. By comparison, Jerusalem was just a little, old, outdated city. Home to a small tribe of people called the Hebrews. As the Roman overseer for this territory, Pilate rarely gave the city of Jerusalem or the Hebrew people much of his attention.
But the Hebrew people had their traditions and their history. The Hebrew people observed their high holy days, like the Passover, when they celebrated God delivering their ancestors from the oppressive rule of a much larger group, the Egyptians. The city of Jerusalem swelled every year during the Passover celebration, when every male of a certain age was required to make the pilgrimage to their holy city.
The Romans had their ways of maintaining the peace. They referred to their system as the Pax Romana, the Peace of Rome. This was peace through domination, peace through intimidation. In fact, the cross was one of the tools of the Pax Romana. If you mess with Rome, this is what you will get.
Crossan and Borg say that it would have been normal for Pilate to ride into Jerusalem around these high holy days, days like Passover, to help with the crowd control. Pilate would ride into town on his war horse with trumpets blaring, leading as many as 600 armed horsemen. Plus foot solders clad in armor, armed with swords and spears. Banners were displayed, welcoming Pilate to town as their leader.
The message was clear: Don’t mess with Rome.
But Gospels tell a different story. For the last three years, Jesus has been speaking of a different kingdom, the Kingdom of God. But the Kingdom of God differs from the kingdoms of this world in many ways. Yes, Jesus spoke of peace, but not peace through intimidation and force. But peace through love, forgiveness, and compassion.
On the day we know as Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into town, not on a war horse, but on a colt. A baby horse. And it wasn’t even his, he needed to borrow it. I imagine him riding into town, his feet dragging on both sides. There were no armed soldiers or banners, just his fellow Hebrew people, laying down their cloaks and shouting words of encouragement.
Indeed, Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem fulfilled a prophecy of old from the Prophet Zechariah. Jesus knew what he was doing; this was no accident. It was the fulfillment of prophecy, and it was a counter movement to the powers of the world.
This is not the Pax Romana. This is the Pax Christi, the Peace of Christ.
The story of Palm Sunday is more than just a cute story of children and adults waving palm branches and crying out hosanna. This is a day that invites us to make a decision. Which parade will you be a part of? Are you going to be a part of the parade that gets all bent out of shape and celebrates a violent leader who brings peace through scare tactics, intimidation, and threat? Or are you going to be a part of the parade for the Prince of Peace, the Lord of lords, who loves you so much that he is willing to lay down his life for you?
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